Prestigious Guest Lecture Assignment Lures Professor Near Ukraine

Professor Jeffery Brown Will Conduct Research on Ukrainian Election

December 09, 2004

DeKalb, IL – NIU associate law professor, Jeffery Brown will leave the Chicago area this week on a unique assignment, guest lecturing at Petrozavodsk State University in the Russian Federation of Karelia.   He is the first NIU law professor to accept such an assignment.

The Republic of Karelia, a semi-autonomous zone, lies approximately nine hours northwest of  St. Petersburg by overnight train and neighbors the current political hotbed of the Ukraine.   The regional capital, Petrozavodsk is home to Petrozavodsk State University (PSU) and a growing ten-year old Law Faculty.  While visiting, Professor Brown will teach what the Russians call a “spetcourse”, a mini-seminar on International Business Transactions.  At NIU, Professor Brown, an internationalist, teaches Public International Law, International Business Transactions, a seminar called the Rule of Law in Emerging Democracies, Torts and Environmental Law.  

For Professor Brown, the trip also offers a unique opportunity to interact with Russian law professors, students and practicing attorneys and to gauge their collective reactions to the recent political standoff in the Ukraine.  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine has struggled to break free of Moscow’s political orbit and to fully inculcate democratic ideals and institutions.  A recent decision by the Ukrainian Supreme Court invalidating controversial presidential elections as fraudulent was seen by many as a direct challenge to Moscow’s tendency to back candidates supportive of closer political and economic ties between Russia and the Ukraine.  The Moscow-backed candidate won an earlier round of elections that have since been declared fraudulent and therefore invalid, first by the Ukrainian parliament, and now by the Ukrainian Supreme Court.

“The chance to visit Russia at this historic moment represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed sweeping democratic limitations in response to terrorist threats facing his country, and that closely coincides with the events unfolding in the Ukraine where democratic values seem finally to have taken hold,”  commented Professor Brown.  He added that he plans to write an essay examining the details of the Ukrainian Supreme Court's historic decision. 
 
This is Professor Brown’s second trip to the PSU Law Faculty.  Brown first visited the university in May at the request of Vermont Law School Professor Carl Yirka.  While there, he conducted an evaluation of a long-term U.S. State Department- funded law school exchange program between Vermont Law School and the PSU Law Faculty.  As a result of what Brown calls a “highly productive” visit, the Dean of the PSU Law Faculty, Sergei Chernov, invited him to return to teach the “spetcourse” which will coincide with the end of the Russian fall semester. 

In addition to teaching, Professor Brown has also been invited to participate in a PSU Law Faculty symposium.  The federalism symposium will examine certain legal aspects of Comparative Federalism, especially the legal and institutional relationships between state, regional and national governmental bodies. 
 
 
For more information, contact:
Melody Mitchell
Director, Alumni Events & Public Relations
815/753-9655l